ll. 420, 421. B. reads: þær ic (on) fîfelgeban (= ocean) ýðde eotena cyn. Ten Br. reads: þær ic fîfelgeban ýðde, eotena hâm. Ha. suggests fîfelgeband = monster-band, without further changes.
l. 420. R. reads þæra = of them, for þær.—Zachers Zeitschr. iii. 399; Beit. xii. 367.
l. 420. "niht has a gen., nihtes, used for the most part only adverbially, and almost certainly to be regarded as masculine."—Cook's Sievers' Gram., p. 158.
l. 425. Cf. also [ll. 435], [635], [2345], for other examples of Beowulf's determination to fight single-handed.
l. 441. þe hine = whom, as at [l. 1292], etc. The indeclinable þe is often thus combined with personal pronouns, = relative, and is sometimes separated from them by a considerable interval.—Sw.
l. 443. The MS. has Geotena. B. and Fahlbeck, says H.-So., do not consider the Geátas, but the Jutes, as the inhabitants of Swedish West-Gothland. Alfred translates Juti by Geátas, but Jutland by Gotland. In the laws they are called Guti.—Beit. xii. 1, etc.
l. 444. B., Gr., and Ha. make unforhte an adv. = fearlessly, modifying etan. Kl. reads anforhte = timid.
l. 446. Cf. [l. 2910]. Th. translates: thou wilt not need my head to hide (i.e. bury). Simrock supposes a dead-watch or lyke-wake to be meant. Wood, thou wilt not have to bury so much as my head! H.-So. supposes heáfod-weard, a guard of honor, such as sovereigns or presumptive rulers had, to be meant by hafalan hýdan; hence, you need not give me any guard, etc. Cf. Schmid, Gesetze der A., 370-372.
l. 447. S. places a colon after nimeð.
l. 451. H.-So., Ha., and B. (Beit. xii. 87) agree essentially in translating feorme, food. R. translates consumption of my corpse. Maintenance, support, seems preferable to either.